Blair: China Adopting a More Aggressive Military Stance

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told Congress Tuesday that China’s alleged harassment of an unarmed U.S. Navy craft is the “most serious” he’s seen in eight years, warning that China appears to have adopted a more aggressive military stance.

“The Chinese trajectory there has changed in a somewhat more aggressive way in the past several years from what we had seen earlier,” he said, specifically pointing to activity in the South China Sea. “They seem to be more … military, aggressive, forward-pushing than we saw a couple of years before.”

Blair said the debate is still open as to whether China’s military power will be “used for good or for pushing people around.”

His testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee comes after the Pentagon accused five Chinese ships of harassing an unarmed U.S. Navy craft in international waters. Blair said the incident is the worst since a U.S. spy plane and crew were detained in 2001.